A U.S.-Russian space team is leaving the international space station Saturday after five months, now that their relief crew has arrived. What makes their departure different from that of the five previous teams is that they are heading home on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. U.S. space shuttles, the usual mode of transportation to and from the outpost, have been grounded because of the Columbia accident in February. The Soyuz is a proven craft, although not as comfortable.

Because of the Columbia disaster, station commander Ken Bowersox, astronaut Don Pettit, and cosmonaut Nikolai Budharin are returning to Earth more than a month later than originally planned. When the shuttle disintegrated in February, they told the U.S. space agency NASA that they would remain aloft as long as necessary. Commander Bowersox sounds as if he regrets having to leave.

"I'm actually going to miss the station quite a lot. I feel a little bit like I'm being kicked out of my apartment for not paying my rent," he said.

They had expected to fly home on the shuttle Atlantis, but the moratorium on shuttle flights forced NASA to arrange for the only other manned spacecraft that regularly visits shuttles, the reliable Soyuz.

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